Love in the Time of Coronavirus

Written on Day 3 of Safer at Home

It is only Day 3 of quarantine with my partner.

By the end of this, I will know with confidence if I want to grow old with my boyfriend or if I want to kill him. So far, I am leaning towards the latter. Just kidding. Kinda. 

We have only been living together for two weeks before the coronavirus quarantine started. And it has accelerated our relationship. We have been dating for 1.5 years, but I feel like we have been married for 83 years. 

For example, I can now tell how long it has been since he has changed his underwear. Or that he doesn’t brush his teeth most mornings. Would I have noticed before? Unlikely. Or how often he plays games. Or how much YouTube he watches. All the ways I thought my boyfriend was different from the typical stinky guy. I was wrong.

But I also get to see small moments of tenderness that I overlooked before. Like how he refills my water when it is low while I am focused creating a student course plan. Or how he puts my dirty dishes in the dishwasher while I am furiously typing an email. 

I can feel my fuse grow shorter as the hours go by. I am still learning to communicate my needs for alone time and togetherness to be a better partner during this time. We still have a long way to grow together during this indefinite coronavirus quarantine. I am excited to see where it goes. Hopefully it won’t end up with one of us dead – either from coronavirus or each other.